Growing strong
by Zonnewende
Summary: Good earth cultivates strong trees. This time around, Ash's mother dies and he is taken in by none other than professor Oak.


**Growing strong**

_Good earth cultivates strong trees. This time around, Ash's mother dies and he is taken in by none other than professor Oak._

**Chapter One**

**Roots before branches**

"Professor," the hurried gasps of his assistant could be heard the moment the door closed behind the man's form, "_professor Oak!_"

"Mark," Samuel remarked as he earmarked his page and put _Inconsistencies in pokémon breeding _back on the desk in front of him. "What brings you here at this hour? Your shift ended some hours ago-"

"Delia Ketchum is _dead, _professor! They just found her and-"

Professor Oak opened his mouth for a moment before closing it, pressing his lips together in a grim line as he frowned at Mark. Then he stood up and picked his white coat from his chair in a singly, smooth motion before striding out of the room. Mark watched him go, his glasses still foggy from the rain outside and his clothes still damp, but made no motion to follow him.

Everyone knew that when Oak got that look in his eyes that it was best to leave him alone.

_.-.-.-.-._

Delia Ketchum dies from a heart attack. It was a sudden, unexpected and sad way to pull a young, healthy mother from the world and leave her two-year-old son an orphan (his father _wasn't _an option, _ever_).

Her body was found when Ash's nanny found the door locked, the curtains closed yet heard the toddler's bloodcurdling cries from outside. It took the combined efforts of both of Delia's neighbours to break down the door, inside they found a broken mug next to the woman's cold body.

That was how Samuel Oak found them, a sheet had already been pulled over Delia's body and one of Pallet Town's few police officers was also present. The atmosphere in the tiny living room was tense and all whispered conversations fell silent once Samuel walked in through the doorway.

"My condolences, sir," the police constable murmured as he approached him, hat in hand, "I know you were close to miss Ketchum and-"

"Where is Ash?"

The officer points to the stairs and Samuel nodded gratefully before leaving the room. Behind him he hears the whispers starting up again but he paid them no mind as he watched the Ash's shocked nanny rocking a teary-eyed toddler in her arms.

"I can take him over from you," Samuel says automatically, his voice devoid of its usual calmness or warmth as he held out his arms.

The girl hesitates, her pale eyes staring up at him, "a-are you s-s-sure, sir?"

"I am, go back home and tell your parents what happened. You need comforting as much as Ash does now, and I'll take care of him," professor Oak murmured with a forced smile as the teenager carefully hands him the toddler and then almost runs from the room.

_.-.-.-.-._

Contrary to popular belief, Samuel Oak has more than one child. He has a son, Martin, and a daughter named Claudia. His son went on to become talented trainer and devotes all his time to his pokémon. His daughter had her first child at seventeen and her second at twenty-four and is a loving girlfriend to her boyfriend (the two never married).

(he wakes up every day waiting for the inevitable phone call that Danny walked out on Claudia, he knows it's just a matter of time)

He tries not to think of how he was too strict with Martin, how his eldest ran away at fourteen with a backpack of stolen supplies and one of his father's lab pokémon. How Martin hardly ever calls, how he jumps from continent to continent but hasn't set foot on Kanto for over two decades. He had wanted a perfect son, an heir to ensure his legacy lived on. He was just too blind to see that Martin was perfect and instead saw his strengths as shortcomings.

He knows he messed up with Claudia too, gave her too much freedom. Gave her too much love. He saw her as his little princess, the apple of his eye. She could do no wrong and he gave her everything he possibly could. She repaid him by stealing his money, running off with a man two times her age and only contacting him to ask for _more _money (which he gives her, unless he never wants to see his grandchildren again).

So when the paperwork is finished and Ash is officially his he swears he's going to do right by him. He is going to be the best surrogate father a boy could ever wish for. He is going to be supportive and not too strict and loving and everything he should have been with Martin and Claudia. He's not going to hole up in his lab and send the child off with an expensive tutor (or an aide, he's done both).

_.-.-.-.-._

Ash is a sunny child, happy to bask in all the attention given to him and always eager to prove himself. He's a difficult learner, thriving under a more hands-on approach rather than mulling over theory. He is diagnosed with ADHD early on though, but his school results made leaps the moment his medication kicked in.

It is certainly odd though, a little black-haired boy calling a man that could have been his grandfather 'dad', but Ash wouldn't have it any other way. Even when his _biological _father(the man won't _ever _be his real father) sends home trinkets for Ash's birthday. Even when Samuel calmly explains his mother's death, showing him the papers that show that while Ash is in his custody he isn't his _child_.

Samuel can't ignore how much like Martin he is when he obediently mucks out the enclosures the lab's pokémon are held in. Or how much he looks like Claudia when he blinks owlishly at a problem before turning his big eyes on him in hopes of getting the answer (or, at the very least, the correct way to _find _the answer).

_.-.-.-.-._

Danny walks out on Claudia and their two children when Gary, their youngest, is just nine. Daisy is sixteen already and she is already off to college in Johto (having skipped a few grades) but that leaves Gary. Claudia goes through a string of different boyfriends and eventually Samuel intervenes and has Gary placed in his custody.

Claudia throws a fit and moves to Cerulean with her latest boy-toy and last he heard Danny has admitted to having four other children with four different women (most born while he was still with Claudia).

_.-.-.-.-._

Gary and Ash got along like a house on fire.

That is to say, their arguments have a nasty tendency to get _explosive_.

Samuel tries to treat them equally, but he can't. Gary has inherited both the best and the worst of his mother and is spoiled on top of that. The first time he tells his grandson to help him do his rounds is met with a fit that ends with Gary being confined to his room for two days (with the occasional bathroom breaks allowed) and him having a nasty set of scratches on his arms. When Ash hears he is almost proud of the calm way the boy processes the news, but he sees the anger simmering under the boy's eyes and reminds himself to watch the two closely.

A week and one moment of lax supervision later and Ash has a split lip while Gary sports a set of nasty bruises. He forbids Ash from interacting with _any _of the lab pokémon _and _doubles his homework while Gary has to wake up at six o'clock for a week to muck out all the enclosures for a week.

But he sees the potential in Gary. The boy has a sharp, inquisitive mind that seems at odds with his obvious disdain of pokémon and work in general. His grandson has a feel for research and pokémon handling but dislikes the acts themselves, he tries not to be disappointed but it is difficult at times. He loves his grandson, he truly does, but they have so little in common. Daisy at the very least was a scientist to her very core, they had bonded over microscopes and checking her research and recommending her to the college of her choice. Gary is equally talented but chooses to waste it, and Samuel loathes it.

But, unexpectedly, it is Ash that manages to almost solve that problem. Gary is nothing if not competitive, and seeing Ash flourish and being praised for his hard work ignites a flame in his grandson. When he finds the two racing to see who can finish their chores the fastest or help the most aides with random errands he feels his heart swell.

(and then Ash accidentally runs into Gary and the two are rolling on the floor again, fists and insults flying and he has to remind himself that boys will be boys before running to separate the two again.)

_.-.-.-.-._

Ash is ten, almost eleven, when Samuel secretly ships in a set of starter pokémon. He gets to give nine to trainers each year, and they are mostly given to rich kids with even richer parents in order to garner more _'donations' _for his research. Occasionally he picks a few ordinary kids who have the potential to grow into marvellous trainers, but the world is run by money and those children will be great no matter what pokémon they start with. And he is allowed to hand any ordinary pidgey or whatnot he captures to whomever he sees fit, so they aren't _truly _neglected.

So he signs Gary and Ash's names on the slips of paper the moment they enter his office. He is only human after all and can't possibly give Ash one and expect Gary to ever look him in the eye again. And besides, they have the potential to be great.

The third pokémon he gives to a boy whose father deals in research equipment, he should be able to get a nifty deal out of that one.

_.-.-.-.-._

He knows that Ash knows, when the pre-teen gives him a dazzling smile and hands in the latest paper Oak has assigned them. It's on what starter is the most useful and by Ash's reasoning it is bulbasaur.

Gary's choice is a charmander. His paper is short, a single piece of paper to be exact, and it ends with 'everyone knows that a charmander needs the most work but a charizard is the strongest of the three'. He can't fault his grandson's logic but he respectfully disagrees. He thinks all three have pros and cons, but if he looks at Ash's eight-pages of statistics, arguments and even mortality rates of trainers with and without a bulbasaur he can't help but pick a side.

(sometimes he sits down in his favourite chair and think of how Ash would have been if he hadn't raised him. Thinks of whether Delia would have gotten him medication for his ADHD or forced the boy to sit through lectures whether he liked it or not. He can't help but think of how Ash is more his son than any of his _real _children. Their arguments are only proof of how much they are alike, he thinks, and then he forces his mind to wander. Ash is his son, and Delia isn't coming back. There is no use in thinking about things that would never be.)

_.-.-.-.-._

Samuel Oak knows that he isn't perfect. He is only human after all. But he thinks he did right by Ash, and he sure as hell tried his best with Gary. Their upbringing wasn't exactly ordinary, but he loves them both and he knows they love him as well (no matter how hard Gary may deny it) and he is happy with that.

He looks at them then, Ash screaming at Gary to shut up and Gary grabbing a handful of mud to fling in Ash's direction and he is _more_ than happy.

He calls the boys back in and orders them to wash up and to be back downstairs in an hour because he has to give them something. Gary bounds up the stairs like a rapidash and Oak flinches when he hears the door to the bathroom slam closed (and the shout of "Shotgun, I'm first!" that follows) but Ash lingers in the doorway for a moment before flinging himself at him. His arms wrap around Samuel's pristine white coat in a muddy embrace and Ash smiles up at him.

"Thank you, dad."

* * *

**Kudos to whovever manages to catch the Game of Thrones reference (it's a big one, almsot impossible to miss) and the song title reference (also a decently big one). They seemed appropriate, looking at Samuel's last name. **

**Also, next chapter will be less 'jumpy' and focus on Ash the moment he receives his starter and start his journey. I'm also going to tell you this, I don't do million-chapter journey fics with a snail's pace. I get bored writing that, so I'll try to set a decent pace.**

**Thank you for reading.**


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